So you know we love Bones – it’s in the name, and we have the skull icon to match our branding. But the reason behind why we choose Bone Club is not a morbid fascination with skulls and skeletons, but more about a homage to how dice were originally used and produced.
Dice date back some 8000 years ago. The first dice that can be related to our 6 sided cubed friends, were originally made from bone: the ankle bones of hoofed animals, such as sheep and oxen to be precise. These bones were chosen because they are roughly cube-shaped, with two rounded sides that couldn’t be landed on, and four flat ones.
Back in those times dice were used as a tool to determine the future. The prediction quickly progressed to gambling – rolling the dice to choose an outcome. Some 1000 years later dice progressed to have square off the edges so 6 flatten sides could exist and more complex outcomes delivered.
It seems that historians can show that dice first appeared in board games in Ur, a city in southern Mesopotamia. Now referred to as the “Royal Game of Ur,” this was the early version of backgammon (circa 3,000 BC) and used a 4 sided dice.
It wasn’t until much later, around 1300 BC that pips / spots to denote values appeared on the dice providing the basis six-sided cubic hexahedrons we still use today.
That’s why we have spent time researching and sourcing great dice for you to play with. We have experimented with different textures, materials (yes we even tried bone, but far to brittle to work with) and come up with the best dice we can for you. Our range of 9 colours are chosen to compliment our Bone Club house boards and of course have the nod to Bones with our handprint.
Bone Club dice available online from £5 a pair. You can buy them here.